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26.06.2005
Liv Ullmann to Karlovy Vary and La Rochelle 2005
Liv Ullmann, one of Europe’s biggest film stars, will come to Karlovy Vary International Film Festival at the beginning of July to accept a Crystal Globe for her outstanding artistic contribution to the world cinema at the jubilee 40th year of the international film festival. Publisert: 26.06.05 | Sist endret: 27.06.05
 | Liv Ullmann |
John Boorman, Michael Douglas, Miloš Forman, Morgan Freeman, Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Miroslav Ondøíèek, Gregory Peck, Roman Polanski, Carlos Saura, and Franco Zeffirelli are some of the film personalities awarded the prize since 1995.
Nearly four decades have past since the young Norwegian actress came to the awareness of the international public with her role in Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1966). The films which she subsequently shot with the Swedish director comprise a long list: Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen, 1968), Shame (Skammen, 1968), A Passion (En Passion, 1969), Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop, 1972), Scenes from a Marriage (Scener ur ett äktenskap, 1973), Face to Face (Ansikte mot ansikte, 1976), The Serpent’s Egg (1977), and finally Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten, 1978). All of them belong to the golden fund of not only Scandinavian and European film, but of world cinematography as well.
For five years Ullmann shared a home on Farö Island with Ingmar Bergman, who fathered her daughter Linn. He discovered in the young actress, already well-known in Norway at the time, an ability to reveal the incurable traumas of the sensitive female soul, and to express complex feelings of frustration while at the same time examining her own torment. In spite a role’s dramatic nature, the characters Liv Ullmann enacted in the films of numerous top filmmakers evoke a feeling of calming harmony through her unaffected natural beauty, whether playing a simple countrywoman, artist, or intellectual. When Liv Ullmann used to hear the common claim that she owed everything to Bergman, she often remarked with a sly smile that perhaps she had contributed to his fame now and then as well. The indisputable truth of this fact is testified to by the films Ullmann made with other directors, including Jan Troell’s The Emigrants (Utvandrarna, 1971), The New Land (Nybyggarna, 1972), and Zandy’s Bride (1974), and Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far (1977). She also worked with another British director, Anthony Harvey, with American Daniel Petrie, Italians Mario Monicelli and Mauro Bolognini, directing cameramen Sven Nykvist and Vilmos Zsigmond, Argentine-born German director Janine Meerapfel, and many other filmmakers who longed to work with her.
Of course, not only her work in front of the camera and on the stages of Europe and Broadway has proved what a time-valued asset Liv Ullmann has been over time to world screens and stages. As far back as 1976 she came out with The Change> (Forandringen), a novel which has been translated into 25 languages. Since 1980, Ullmann has worked for UNICEF; as a goodwill ambassadress she has traveled to third world countries gathering financial support for mothers and children suffering from hunger and poverty in the most troubled areas of the globe.
Considering her multifaceted career, it was only a matter of time before she decided to write and direct her own movies. She debuted in 1992 with the Danish film Sophie (Sofie), followed three years later by an adaptation of Kristin Lavransdatter (1995). She then shot Private Confessions (Enskilda samtal, 1996) and Faithless (Trolösa, 2000) based on scripts written by Bergman. The latter of these was selected for the competition at the Cannes IFF, and a year later Ullmann was invited to chair that festival’s international jury. Among many other tributes which this wellrounded personality of European culture has received, the latest is the European Achievement in World Cinema, a lifetime award conferred by the European Film Academy at the gala awards ceremony in Barcelona in December 2004.
Currently, Ullmann is working on three scripts and on her autobiography. Nevertheless, she has agreed to come to the Karlovy Vary film festival, where three films will be screened in her honor: the documentary portrait Liv Ullmann – Scenes from a Life (Liv Ullmann – Scener fra et liv) shot by Edvard Hambro and narrated by Woody Allen. In one of Norway’s most successful films, An-Magritt (1969, dir. Arne Skouen), Ullmann plays a young woman who must fight for her rights in antiquated 17th century society. And Ullmann’s adaptation of Kristin Lavransdatter (1995), the renowned novel trilogy that helped Sigrid Undset win the 1928 Nobel Prize for literature, will also be presented. Situated in the Middle Ages and taking advantage of the romantic beauty of the Norwegian landscape, Liv Ullmann’s film version enjoyed the same popular interest as the novel.
Both feature films will be presented in the frame of the festival’s “Nature and Landscape in Norwegian Cinema” section.
La Rochelle
Liv Ullmann will also visit La Rochelle this summer: The festival will screen more than 10 films by the actress / director between july 1st and 11th.
Related information:
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
- La Rochelle International Film Festival
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